SDSU men: Goal reached amid upsets, streaks

Big wins, bad losses on tourney journey

Mar. 20, 2013

SDSU senior Tony Fiegen (pictured against IUPUI during the Summit League tournament March 9) says struggles on the court during the middle of the season were key to improving and clinching a second straight NCAA Tournament bid. / Jay Pickthorn / Argus Leader

The Jacks upend No. 16 New Mexico 70-65 before a crowd of 15,278 at the Pit – their first win against a top-25 team – to end a string of three road games in eight days against NCAA tourney teams. What’s more, they had to bus there from Nashville because of bad weather.

Jan. 5

SDSU falls into a 20-point hole in the first half and loses 74-71 at rival South Dakota on the day that senior Nate Wolters broke the 28-year-old school record for career scoring. It’s the Jacks’ sixth loss of the season and second in four Summit League games. But the team responds by winning the next eight.

Feb. 7

Wolters shatters the program mark for single-game scoring that had stood since 1973 by putting up 53 in an 80-74 win at Fort Wayne. It’s the highest total by a D-I player this season. The senior also hit nine 3-pointers – another school record.

Feb. 16

Before a sell-out crowd for Senior Night, the Jacks beat Western Illinois 64-55 to run their home win streak to 30 games – a school and conference record and the longest active streak in the country. The victory also enables them to earn a share of their first regular-season title two weeks later for the first time.

BROOKINGS — The season would have been a failure if it didn’t culminate with a return trip to the NCAA Tournament.

That’s what All-American guard Nate Wolters said during a candid moment on Selection Sunday, offering insight into the psyche of the South Dakota State men’s basketball team over the past year. This is what happens when you reach the grandest stage in the college game ahead of schedule and for the first time.

Most of the pressure was internal – the Jackrabbits knew first-hand how fun and fulfilling it was to be included in the 68-team bracket. But there was external heat, too, from segments of the most supportive fan base in the Summit League irked by consecutive rivalry losses over the holidays.

In the end, it was much ado about nothing. SDSU (25-9) grew into the target it was forced to wear and ultimately used past experiences to its advantage, earning its first regular-season conference title since moving to the D-I level in 2004 and defending its conference tournament crown. The squad also registered a top-25 upset, built the longest active home win streak in the country and stayed relevant beyond the region thanks in part to the wizardry of Wolters, the school’s career leader in points (2,363) and assists (663).

The Jacks accomplished everything they set out to do – except advance in the NCAA bracket. And they’ve got another crack at that, taking on Michigan (26-7) at 6:15 tonight at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

“Getting there last year, kind of the whole summer you think you’re going to get back, and then you realize it’s going to be a lot harder than you think,” Wolters said. “Getting back is a blessing.”

In a testament to the complexity of the season, there wasn’t a turning point – there were many.

A win at then 15th-ranked New Mexico – a No. 3 seed in this tournament – before more than 15,000 fans in the building where SDSU made its Big Dance debut affirmed the idea that the Jacks could knock off anybody. The fact that it played three NCAA tourney teams in eight days and had to bus from Nashville to Albuquerque added a degree of difficulty.

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Losses at rivals North Dakota State and South Dakota left SDSU at just 2-2 in league play. So much for being the preseason favorite on the strength of four returning starters, right? Except that skid generated a heightened sense of focus, and the Jacks rattled off eight in a row.

Likewise, back-to-back non-league losses late in the season – the first losing streak in almost two seasons – helped create a sense of urgency heading into conference tournament time, rare for this mild-mannered bunch.

“Once we were annoyed with each other a little bit and struggling,” senior forward Tony Fiegen said, “that’s when we started practicing well and went on a run.”

At times, the Jacks ran too much and didn’t hunker down enough. Coach Scott Nagy lamented that defense was in their heads rather than their hearts.

Down the stretch, they won in myriad ways, the most unlikely being a 80-74 at Fort Wayne. Wolters put up 53 points that night, a single-game school record and the most by any Division I player this season. The smooth Minnesotan willed the team to a win on a night when everybody else was off.

That kept the Jacks in the hunt for the top spot in the conference tournament, a distinction they all but secured with a strong defensive showing against stingy Western Illinois on an emotional senior night. The third sell-out crowd of the season at Frost Arena saw SDSU push its home win streak to 30, a school and conference record, plus the longest active run in Division I.

That support carried over to Sioux Falls and the conference tournament, all three SDSU sessions selling out as part of another record showing at the turnstile.

“With the support we receive from the fans, it’s really important we take advantage of that,” said Fiegen, one of three South Dakotans in the starting five. “I wouldn’t say that there’s a sense of invincibility, but we knew going into those games that we played with confidence at home.”

For all the accomplishments of the past two seasons, marked by 52 wins, confidence can be fleeting with this group whether feeling overmatched – some of these guys committed when the team was 6-24 – or under pressure. But when things are loose and locked in as they were in the second go of the conference title game? Anything can happen. All five starters have scored at least 20 points in a game this season.

There were fewer nerves at the Sunday selection show party, too. The pressure seems to have melted away now that the Jacks are where they felt they needed to be.

Failure is off the table. They’ve handled expectations well enough to wind up as the underdog again.

“We’re playing Michigan and we’re going to have to play out of our minds,” Nagy said, “but the thought process is we’re going to win. We’re not just happy to be in this thing.”